The crucial need to protect and restore Ireland’s rivers and lakes from the ravages caused by a booming economy were underlined at a highly successful seminar organised by the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board  in Limerick on September 23. 

The seminar, “The River Shannon Waters – Working together for the Future”, brought together a panel of top level speakers from at home and abroad to discuss actions that need to be taken to ensure good quality waterways and water animal, fish and plant life. 

The event attracted an attendance of over one hundred people from all over the country who are making their own input into protecting and improving fisheries and the environment. 

Mr John Browne, Minister of State for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, pointed out that the Shannon was the country’s largest river and drained  14,700 square kilometres. He said he was pleased to see all the work being done by agencies to roll out the EU Water Framework Directive. A substantial amount of work had to be done if Ireland was to maintain and improve on water quality, but the Government was committed to meeting the targets set in the Directive by 2015.  

In Photo: Left to right Mr John Browne, Minister of State for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and Mr Eamon Cusack CEO Shannon Regional Fisheries Board

The Minister revealed that the long awaited review of inland fisheries was virtually complete. He expected a package under the Nitrates Directive to be finalised for Ireland by the end of the year. A balance would have to be struck to ensure that farmers were not put out of business.  

Tom Enright, Environment  Director of Limerick County Council said Limerick, Clare and Roscommon County Councils were the lead authorities in implementing the Shannon River Basin Project. This was aimed at ensuring that the catchment achieved the targets set out in the Directive. 

Dr Alan Barr, of the Shannon River Basin Management Group, said 75 million euro had been spent to date on upgrading 18 wastewater treatment plants in towns in the Lough Derg and Lough Ree catchments, with consequent benefits for water quality. However, many plants continued to have excessive discharges into waters. 

A major source of phosphate inflows into the catchment had been virtually switched off due to the  a voluntary agreement made in December 1999 between the Government and detergent manufacturers that all phosphates in detergents would be phased out. As a result of this initiative, 90 per cent of detergents were now phosphate free. 

County Councils in Cavan, North Tipperary, Westmeath and Offaly had adopted Agricultural Bye-Laws aimed at tackling the run-off of slurry into rivers and streams.  In most cases, the result of all these initiatives had been improved river water quality, with a significant improvement in the water quality of the Shannon. 

Water quality in both Lough Derg and Lough Ree were now classed as mesotrophic (satisfactory),  but phosphorous levels were still elevated. The arrival of the Zebra Mussel had a significant bearing on reducing the impacts of eutrophication in the lakes. However, new ecological classification tools were being devised to ascertain the exact impact of this exotic shellfish on water quality. These tools should be ready for testing in 2006 and would provide a better indication of the health of lakes with zebra mussels. At present there was a weakness in the testing system. 

The task now was to build on the benefits gained in implementing the Lough Derg Lough Ree Management Catchment Strategy through the Shannon River Basin Project. If Ireland failed to prove that it was achieving better quality water through implementation of this project it would be threatened with infraction procedures by the European Commission. 

Michael Fitzsimons, Senior  Fisheries  Environmental Officer with the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, said a number of fish species in the River Shannon catchment  had been decimated by pollution. Most of the pollution was caused by the agriculture sector, he said. 

Populations of  pollen, Arctic char, the “Croneen” trout and smelt had been decimated by poor water quality. 

Mr Fitzsimons said a thriving population of pollen, a fish  unique to four Irish lakes, and in existence since the Ice Age, was now estimated to be down to five per cent of its original numbers in both Lough Derg and Lough Ree. 

Arctic char had vanished from seven lakes in the Shannon catchment, from both Lough Ennell and Owel, and five lakes in Co Clare: Loughs Inchiquin, Licken, Finloe,  Gortglass and Clonsneachta.

Numbers of  “croneen” trout,  a fish with a unique genetic imprint only found in Lough Derg and its tributaries,  were now severely restricted in three of the four spawning rivers were they once abounded. 

The only remaining waterway where the Croneen spawned in large numbers was the Camcor River in Birr. The river needed to be designated for special protection to ensure the preservation of this unique trout species.  

The Shannon Estuary once held the country’s largest population of spelt, also known as “the poor man’s herring”. But  “a massive loss of population” had occurred after an estimated 10,000 died in a fish kill near Limerick city five years ago. “It used to take the entire population two weeks to spawn. Now it only takes a single day.” 

“If we do not take action soon fish like the pollen will definitely disappear, and the Croneen after that. We are talking about an ecosystem that is fragile and we have changed the water environment so much that it is becoming even more fragile. These fish have been breeding in clean water for millions of years, but in the last forty years this situation has changed so much that the fish cannot adapt.” 

Mr Fitzsimons said huge strides had been made to tackle pollution of the Shannon and its tributaries. “But we are after taking our foot off the pedal. We still have continued eutrophication with loss of fish habitat, mainly as a result of poorly managed farmyards. We still have a lot of slurry spreading beside waters.” 

He called for more education on water protection for farmers and said those participating in the Rural Environment Protection Scheme who break the pollution laws should be expelled from the scheme. Local authorities needed to introduce stronger enforcement of anti-pollution laws.  

New road building projects, excessive water abstraction, inefficient septic tanks, forestry and silt and peat erosion were contributing to the decimation of spawning grounds on rivers and streams. 

Karen Griffin, Assistant Inspector with the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, underlined the importance of having a partnership approach to fishery development. This approach had been taken on the River Hind in Roscommon which suffered a drop in angler numbers due to pollution and poor catches. The river had been reduced to a weedy channel until a partnership approach was taken to put in weirs, which put oxygen back in the water and created holding pools for spawning fish. Bank stabilisation was carried out to stop livestock knocking silt into the water.  

All the work had resulted in a four fold increase in fish numbers, and membership in the local angling club increased and attracted more angling tourists to the area. The expert fly fisher Peter O’ Reilly to teach local anglers the art of fly fishing and an open day attracted a lot of juvenile anglers who wanted to learn to fish.  The move had also helped boost fish stock in Lough Ree and local people were now proud of the river as an amenity.  

Rebecca Audsley, Project Officer in Water Resource Management at the Scottish Agricultural College, briefed the attendance on a four-point plan implemented in Scotland to reduce diffuse pollution from the farming sector. The plan focussed on better and more cost effective nutrient use; risk assessment for manure and slurry on each farm and managing water margins. Full details of how the plan works are available from Rebecca whose e-mail is: rebecca.audsley@sac.co.uk  

Mark Smith, Director of Biodiversity, the world wide organisation, Nature Conservancy, based in Boston, gave details of a how a Government led catchment strategy adopted in the state of  Massachusetts had led to much better water quality in the state’s waterways. He stressed the importance of sitting down with farmers, planners and industrialists  to explore issues of mutual benefit from water protection initiatives.  The benefits of this partnership approach in an Irish context was echoed by Department of Environment official John Sadlier, the man leading the department’s efforts to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive, who chaired one of the morning sessions at the seminar.  

Eamon Ross, Secretary of the Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association, and Chairman of the  Ulster branch of the  Irish Trout Fly Fishers Association, said  Lough Sheelin had suffered terribly from the huge increase in the surrounding pig industry since the  mid-1970s. Increased phosphate inflows sparked algal blooms which made the lake look like a lawn in summer time. Sunlight could no longer penetrate to the bottom of the lake, rendering it an ecological desert. Laws to protect the lake and Agricultural Bye-Laws introduced by Cavan County Council were inadequate and were not being properly implemented. Planning policy was a major difficult as developers of pig units built without planning permission had been successful when they sought retention of the facilities.  

An enormous amount of data had been compiled on the problem over the last three decades, but little difference had been made to the water quality. The farming organisations were blind to the problem. Only for a stream rehabilitation programme, spearheaed by the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board in the mid-80s, the lake would now be “dead and buried”. Putting a deadline of 2015 to restore the waters of the lake to satisfactory status was too little too late to save the waterway. 

Paddy Mackey, Secretary of the Save Our Lough Derg Group and North Tipperary branch of An Taisce, said there were ways  that non-government organisations  could make a real contribution to protecting and improving water quality in the Shannon Catchment. A “Riverlinks” project, spearheaded  by An Taisce in North Tipperary, involved the erection of signs on roadways beside rivers to highlight a Lough Derg  catchment management approach to water protection.  

Information leaflets on the catchment strategy were distributed to thousands of households in the catchment, giving hints on how households could play their part in the strategy. Information cards were placed in lakeside hotels and guesthouses aimed at getting visitors to reduce phosphate detergent use. School children were brought on field trips of the Nenagh River to introduce them to the flora and fauna of the river and to educate them on the need to protect the amenity. An open day at the Nenagh Regional Water Supply Scheme and an information seminar on Lough Derg were held to mark Water Heritage Day. 

Dr Simon Berrow of the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation revealed that tests carried out by the foundation on the dolphin population in the Shannon Estuary showed up traces of chemicals in their blubber. He warned that this contamination, resulting from pollution, could pose health risks for the mammals. There were only poor indications on the status of the flora and fauna of the estuary and these were not adequate to make informed decisions. Research funds were badly needed to build a knowledge base on the state of animal, fish and plant life in the estuary.  

Frank Corcoran, the Chariman of An Taisce,  said preventing damage to rivers and lakes was a much cheaper option than clean-up operations that had to be undertaken due to neglect. Taxpayers would soon discover this, due to the State’s commitments under the Water Framework Directive to tackle the damage done to waterways.  

An Taisce’s policy was to object to developments that it felt would have an impact on water quality in the Shannon Catchment. The agency operated the Blue Flag scheme to encourage high quality beaches on rivers and seaside areas. Ballycuggeran in Killaloe and Mountshannon, which are both on Lough Derg, had Blue Flag status. An Taisce also spearheaded the Green Schools project, which, among others issues, highlighted the need for water conservation and water quality. He called on the tourism promotion agency, Failte Ireland, to adopt the An Taisce approach of objecting to planned developments that had a potential to impact on water quality. This, he said, would be an effective way of contributing to tourism promotion.  

Barry Kehoe, Acting Environment Director with Westmeath County Council, said limited resources for councils in the Shannon Catchment had a knock-on affect on the ability of local authorities to properly enforce pollution laws.  Elected members of council had to deal with different requests from sectors like farmers and environmentalists. He would like to see bye-laws introduced in Westmeath to control septic tanks, but the introduction of such laws was the reserve function of the elected members who, along with the general public,  had to be convinced that the measure would be worth it in terms of improving water quality. Westmeath was looking at a situation where every town and village would have a wastewater treatment facility, but it was vital that the resources be provided so that all these facilities would be properly maintained. As a result of financial constraints imposed by central government the council had been forced to let go people working in its environment section. 

In Photo: Left to right Mr Trevor Champ Central Fisheries Board and  Liam Cashman, Legal Unit, EU Commission

Liam Cashman the Legal Unit in the EU Commission said members states could be made answerable in the EU Court of Justice if they failed to implement the Water Framework Directive. Proper functioning of septic tanks was being raised under Waste legislation at EU level. There was current EU instruments other that the Water Framework Directive, such as the Habitat Directive, that could be used against member states to ensure protection of river zones. Under the Directive itself, targets in relation to improving water quality had to be achieved on an ongoing basis up to 2015.  

Something that Ireland needed to consider and “worry about” was if the quality of water in lakes and rivers has being correctly categorised. In Ireland reliance on chlorophyll levels to test water quality in lakes was giving a falsely optimistic picture.  

One concern the Commission would have would be whether the Irish government was giving local authorities the proper resources to implement the terms of the Water Framework Directive. Member states could not blame their local authorities for non-implementation of measures like water protection. It was the state that was answerable to the Commission. 

Dr Alex Dubgaard of the Department of Economics and Natural Resources  from the Royal Veterinary and Agriculture University in Denmark, gave an interesting talk on the economic value of the environment and Darragh Lynott Director of the EPAs Office of  Environmental Enforcement briefed the attendance on the role of his office  in improving  compliance with environmental  legislation. 

In wrapping up the eight hour seminar, Eamon Cusack, the Chief Executive Officer of the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, said the board had a strong commitment to protecting and improving water habitat and water quality. It was important to put a high value on the environment, which was an integral part of life itself.